Weekend Box Office: ‘Cars 2′ Cruises to Victory

As expected, Pixar’s ‘Cars 2′ easily took first place at the weekend box office, netting a healthy $68 million. That’s about $8 million higher than the original ‘Cars,’ which opened to $60.1 million in 2006.

Also opening strong this weekend was the R-rated comedy ‘Bad Teacher.’ The Cameron Diaz vehicle exceeded all expectations to gross an astonishing $31 million.

Meanwhile, last week’s champ, ‘Green Lantern,’ dropped a dangerous 65 percent to earn just $18.4 million, presumably due to bad buzz and word of mouth.

Rounding out the top five were ‘Super 8,’ which grossed a steady $12.1 million, and ‘Mr. Popper’s Penguins,’ with $10.3 million.